The Clouds Never Spoke☁️

(Haibun)


The clouds never spoke. Even thunder claps and blinding flashes from a storm without rain in late summer had nothing to do with the lack of words.  Exchanging this brief life for the view of a pinpoint universe in the belief, with that same view blocked from my aspheric vantage, that I was being observed, never suspecting their indifference. Yet for all the muteness in their constant rebirth, I recalled how awestruck the sight of the slow majesty of clouds redefining the summit of a distant range was, than the lidless glare of a day's clear sky sitting featureless on an endless stretch without a single rise.

never to meet
the same cloud twice
in a lifetime,
they never acquire names
the way a strong wind might



Author's notes: Haibun is a Japanese form that involves a narrative and follows with a short form poetic link; a Tanka in this case.

Also, I was inspired to share this piece because of a comment, posted on another's published write earlier today, about the commenter's love of anything to do with clouds.